


Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend

by NEX9



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 乐华七子NEXT | NEX7, 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Angst, Autism, Autism Spectrum, Autistic!Justin, Best Friends, Comic strips, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Imaginary Friend!Chengcheng, School, calvin and hobbes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 10:01:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18754162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NEX9/pseuds/NEX9
Summary: Justin was diagnosed with autism and finds much joy in reading the Calvin and Hobbes books. His imaginary friend, ChengCheng, helps him get through his hard times.





	Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend

**Author's Note:**

> This story reminds me of my brother. He really likes Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, and Marvel comics. He uses words he doesn’t know what they mean. And he has Aspergers Syndrome as well. 
> 
>  
> 
> (This work is not edited)

Mr. and Mrs. Huang stood in the lobby of the doctor’s office waiting for the results from the various tests their five year old son, Justin, just went through. Justin was sitting across the waiting room from his parents reading a Calvin and Hobbes comic. He sat in the soft deep chair with his legs crossed and the book layed on top of them. He rocked back and forth with a grin on his face as he giggled loudly to himself whenever he found a strip he found particularly funny.

Mr. and Mrs. Huang straightened as the doctor walked out of the office. She smiled and waved for the parents to come over to the front desk. The doctor began to write down notes on a clipboard of documents as she spoke.

“So, after the tests we believe that your son has a type of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s a milder form that exhibits itself in symptoms such as difficulty in social situations or unusual interests or behaviors.” She looked back down at the papers to sign them, “Here’s some more information on it that you can read when you get home.” She smiled and handed the Huangs the papers. As she walked back to her office she waved at Justin who waved back but soon turned his interest back to the book in front of him.

Justin didn’t know why his parents were sad. His mom seemed to have been having a hard time ever since they returned from his appointment. He tried to cheer them up a few times. First by doing a small goofy dance, then by giving them hugs and kisses. The second one seemed to help a little, but not much. Justin decided to leave them alone and went to his room. He closed the door and hopped onto his bed opening a Calvin and Hobbes book. He grabbed a piece of blank paper and some markers and started to draw Hobbes. He had just finished the outline and was beginning to color him orange when he felt his bed dip. Justin looked up to see a boy sitting next to him, flipping through his open comic book. The boy looked up and smiled.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m Chengcheng.” Justin smiled back.

 

Justin’s alarm had been going off for ten minutes. He wasn’t moving. School was starting soon and his time to get ready was quickly going away. Suddenly Justin started awake as a very loud yell sounded right next to his ear. His eyes shot open and he sat up. He rubbed the blurry out of his eyes and turned to glare at the figure crouched next to his bed. Chengcheng had ceased his yelling and settled on his knees with a large grin on his face.

“School is starting soon, Stin.” He said and Justin flopped back down to his bed with a groan. Chengcheng stood and launched himself over Justin to the empty other side of the bed.

“C’moooooon!” Chengcheng exclaimed as he began flopping on the bed like a fish.

They met eleven years ago and had grown as close as brothers. Chengcheng had helped Justin when he was having a hard time in social settings and with new situations he didn’t feel comfortable in. They played in their own make believe world where all the issues of real life didn’t exist. Chengcheng soon became Justin’s best, and only, friend. He learned all too quickly, however, not to talk to his parents about his new best friend that no one else could see. He wasn’t stupid enough to not see that they didn’t believe him. So Chengcheng became long forgotten to his mom and dad, but remained very real to Justin.

Justin rolled off his bed and hit the ground much harder than expected. He flipped off the edge and his elbow slammed hard into the side table. He cried out a little at the sudden pain when he heard a hysterical cackle. Justin looked up and Chengcheng was rolling on the bed laughing at him.

“Thank you for your concern.” Justin said, glaring slightly.

“You’re welcome. Okay, Stin, now that you’re awake we can get ready for school.” Chengcheng bounced off the bed and walked over to Justin’s closet. Just as he sat up, he was tossed into darkness as the shirt Chengcheng threw at him wrapped around his eyes, soon followed by pants.

A muffled noise came from the clothing wrap that was Justin’s head.

“Sorry Stin, what was that?” Chengcheng said turning around.

Justin tore the clothes off from around his head and repeated, “I said that you’re insufferable.”

“Do you even know what that means, Justin?”

“...no. But did I use it right?” Justin asked, tilting his head in question.

Chengcheng chuckled and nodded his head, shrugging at the same time. Justin threw his fists in the air and rocked backwards in triumph.

“Okay, but get ready for school.” Chengcheng said, laughing at Justin as he did.

 

School was torture. Justin didn’t have any friends besides Chengcheng, and his classes were hard. No matter how many times the teacher told him how to factor polynomials or how exactly he was to graph linear equations, he couldn’t get it. It made him angry and hate school even more. Luckily he had Chengcheng to keep him company and make him laugh. 

Today was no different. Justin was zoning out in math again because he knew he wouldn’t understand anyways, so why pay attention? At least that’s what he was thinking until he looked down at his notebook to see a note that read 

“At least try to pay attention, Stin.”

Justin turned around and saw Chengcheng standing in the back of the classroom. He had out a notebook and a pencil and looked deeply engrossed in the lesson, but Justin knew he was faking and just trying to get him to take notes. So Justin turned back to his notebook and wrote a note to Chengcheng, 

“Quit being so gasconading.” He turned and glared at Chengcheng as he saw the note appear on his own notebook. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked up at Justin who still had an irritated look on his face. Chengcheng turned back to his notebook and wrote something down. The note soon appeared on Justin’s own notebook.

“I don’t even know what you were trying to say.” Justin facepalmed himself with the desk.

School was over, and as bad as school was, the ride home was much worse. Justin rode the bus home and the kids who rode with him weren’t very nice. The absolute worst part was that Chengcheng couldn’t come on the bus. There weren’t enough seats, so Justin was always alone. 

It wasn’t two minutes after the bus started driving that the kids started talking. They weren’t mean directly to Justin’s face, but they talked just loud enough for him to hear.

“I mean, how stupid can you get? He shouldn’t even be allowed to go to normal school.”

That was the first hit.

“But don’t you know? His parents send him to public school because they don’t care about him enough to want to see his stupid, gay face all day.”

The second one always hurts more.

“Ugly retard.” 

With every word they directed at him, Justin’s heart would feel as if it was being beat. It would drop a little further in his chest, it would take blow after blow. Sometimes it felt like it had been peeled from his chest with red glowing spears, leaving a lingering pain. Justin wrapped his arms around himself, trying not to fall apart for real. He just pretended not to hear them. He leaned up against the window and closed his eyes, willing the boys to just go away. They never did.

Chengcheng was sitting on Justin’s bed when he got home, ready to be there for him. Justin stepped into his room and dropped his backpack on the ground, heading straight for Chengcheng’s open arms. His body collapsed into Chengcheng’s and he started to cry. Chengcheng didn’t say anything. He just sat holding Justin and rocking back and forth with the smaller boy in his arms. Justin’s body shook with sobs. It wasn’t fair to anyone, especially Justin, that people were low enough to speak to another human as if they were nothing. What did they expect to gain from shoving Justin so low he collapsed in on himself? It hurt Chengcheng to see Justin this way. He wished he could take the hurt for him. He wished to be the one being called terrible names, he wished to be the one everyone thought was dumb and stupid. He wished Justin didn’t have to be the one taking it all. As Chengcheng thought this, tears began to fall from his eyes. He held Justin and felt his heart break just a little for his best friend.

 

“Justin please hurry up!” Mrs. Huang called to Justin from her room. They were cleaning out the house so they could pack up. Open boxes sat all around Justin’s room. They were moving houses because Justin’s dad had been promoted to work elsewhere. Chengcheng had stopped working a half hour earlier and had opted to just lay on the floor and instruct Justin like a drill sergeant. 

Justin sat criss-cross on the floor of his room flipping through his old books as he cleaned off his bookshelves. A folded piece of paper slipped out of one of his Calvin and Hobbes books as he went to put it in the giveaway box. He set the book down and picked up the piece of paper that was folded into fourths. Justin tilted his head to the side as he opened it slowly. A smile grew across Justin’s face as he looked down at a drawing of Hobbes he had done as a five year old. The orange fur was still only half done, but next to Hobbes on the page was a drawing of Calvin. Next to the drawing of Calvin was the signature of the author. Chengcheng. Justin turned to show Chengcheng what he had found but saw that his best friend had fallen asleep on the floor. His mouth was open and his chest rose and fell with every breath. Justin looked back and the picture and folded it into the fourths it had been in and placed it back in the book. He stood up with the book in his hand and slipped it into his suitcase.

“Thank you for being my best friend.” Justin whispered.

“Now that, you used correctly.” Justin turned and saw Chengcheng sitting up and smiling back at him.

**Author's Note:**

> Playlist
> 
> History- One Direction  
> Seamless- Sabrina Carpenter  
> We are gonna be friends- Jack white  
> You’ve got a friend in me- Randy Newman  
> Count on me- Bruno Mars


End file.
